Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Leaving Gee's Bend is a marvelous debut book by Irene Latham. I was immediately consumed by the book and kept turning the pages. I found the look at Ludelphia's life to be fascinating. The 1930's are something I know very little about, and this book gave me just a slice of life then. The funny thing is is this book could easily take place now - as there are some rural areas that are just that poor. So with that in mind it was really easy to get into the novel.

I really loved how quilting tied everything together. I love to quilt and sew so this book interested me because of that. Well I got a look at the quilting and the book gave me so much more. I will definitely be checking out the Gee's Bend quilts soon.

Ludelphia as a character is inspirational. This is a child who will do anything to help out her family and knows the one place she wants to be is home. So she embarks to find medicine to help her mother and she doesn't even understand the outside world. All she really knows is Gee's Bend. She gets a quick education and flows with all that happens. She is amazing and resilient. I enjoyed watching her grow throughout this book.

Leaving Gee's Bend was very enjoyable and entertaining. It took me out of my world for a little while and put me into Ludelphia's and that is the trade mark of a great book.

About the Book:

A young girl sets out to save her sick mother and records her
adventures in quilt pieces.

Ludelphia Bennett may be blind in one eye, but she can still put in
a good stitch. Ludelphia sews all the time, especially when things go
wrong.

But when Mama goes into labor early and gets deathly ill, it seems
like even quilting won’t help. That’s when Ludelphia decides to do
something drastic—leave Gee’s Bend for the very first time. Mama needs
medicine that can only be found miles away in Camden. But that doesn’t
stop Ludelphia. She just puts one foot in front of the other. What
ensues is a wonderful, riveting and sometimes dangerous adventure.
Ludelphia weathers each challenge in a way that would make her mother
proud, and ends up saving the day for her entire town.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book through Other Shelf Tours for the purpose of review and my reading enjoyment. My review is my own feelings about the book. I do not make money on reviews or through my Amazon links (NC does not allow money to be made through Amazon associates).